Author Archives: Streetplay Discussions

I live in an adult community…

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I live in an adult community of 500 homes. I was introduced to bocci in Buffalo, NY in 1960. I bought my first set of balls then and there ’cause I was “hooked” by the game. I have been playing bocci everyplace I went for the past forty years. Recently I was in charge of an “outing ” and organized a lawn bocci game. Wow! almost 100 people signed up . We have an air conditioned building with stands for spectators which was originally designated for shuffleboard. There are 4 courts. No one plays shuffleboard anymore. How can I adapt this made to order building for bocci?

I am a 23 year old member…

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I am a 23 year old member of the United States Air Force, and I am from New York. While “surfing the net”, I happened to come across your website. For years, i thought I was the only person who might remember “skelsies”. I used to love this game when I was younger!!!!! I have tried to explain this game to my friends, and they look at me like i’m crazy. Skelsies is by far the greatest street game of all time. I’m glad to see that the older crowd is teaching the younger kids about this game at the Brooklyn festival of ’99. Maybe one day I can get some formidable competition.(HA!) Here’s an addition to your list of tops to use: When i was coming up we would the hold portion of a meat tenderizer shaker. They are so skinny and flat that it was easy to fly over the top of them if your top was not weighted down. They also glided well also. Another popular one was the Kodak film cap. These gray tops had a section in the middle where we would put our clay to weigh the tops down. In my area, in the Bronx, these tops were known lovingly as the “meaty” and the “Kodak” respectively. Keep up the good work and don’t let “skelsies” die!!

my friends and i used to…

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my friends and i used to play bounce pitch sitckball at the park down the street from us. because there was no wall behind it we couldnt actually throw fast pitch which would have been better but you know…im a lefthander and there was no fence in right field so we(lefty’s) had to hit it three times as far than the righty’s would to get a homerun. it would have to go into the neighbors yard to be a homerun and that was about 250 feet away. nobody had ever come close before until one day i stepped up to bat and crushed a homerun into the middle of the yard. nobody would get the ball because there was this huge german sheppard in the yard so they made me go get it(the you hit it u get it rule)so i had to go get the ball and i almost got eaten alive during the process. the dog chased me to the fence and as i was hurdling the fence, it took a chunk out of my pants. i was the hero for the day. we kept playing until it was dark like always thanx to me. every once in a while my friends bring that day up when we are talking about the old days.

Ah, I remember that game…

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Ah, I remember that game – we called it “Swiss Skip”, and was either made from an elastic chain or a single long piece of sewing elastic. the was one person on each end with the elastic around their ankles. (or, boys called “ever enders -cuz they never played, just stayed on the ends) the elastic would travel from ankles, kness, under-bums, waists, shoulders necks etc the team had to go through the series of steps without missing to move the elastic up. the steps were done to rythms : M I S S I SS I PPI etc. it didnt’ really matter what you did, as long as you ended without being stuck in the elastic so it was all in the timing, you could wrap the elastic – cross it, jump on it etc. but, it you meant to jump on both sides, and missed – you were out! that’s what I remember!

Someone ask about STATUES…

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Someone ask about STATUES – Usually the biggest kid would swing each of us round and round by the arm and let go. Where we landed and how we landed was how we would have to stay until everyone was swung. Then we would just start over. TROJAN HORSES – We’d pair off, the strongest would carry the smaller partner on their shoulders and attack the other pairs. Winner was the last pair standing.

I remember playing this…

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I remember playing this but its a bit fuzzy. You jumped over and back acrossed the rope (elastic cord or what ever it was called ) The cord holders them moved their feet apart and you jumped over each cord and back, while the cords were apart you jumped over both cords and back. the holders then moved their feet together and you jumped over the 2nd cord while catching the 1st with your toes so that you formed a diamond.You then turned around three times and jumped out with a foot on the outside of each cord.(stradling the cords) It seems we moved the cord from the ankle to midcalf and knees ad repeated the moves. I think there was more moves but can’t remember any more, hope this jogs someones memory.

Remember United Parcel trucks…

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Remember United Parcel trucks (Electrc powered) Milk wagons with rubber tires for wheels. Rent a bike ,without fenders l0 cents an hour with fenders twenty five cents. You had to bring your familys current Coned bill as an ID. Get into movie house with a pass and five cents see three westerns, three shorts, three cartoons, received a thin comic book a two cent soda and then got a pass to come the following week for five cents. This was the Upper Eastside of New York in the thirties

Hello All, My mom phoned…

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Hello All, My mom phoned tonight asking on how to play a childhood game she called Seven up involving bouncing a ball against a wall and doing various tasks in numerical order. Ubfortunately she couldnt remember the tasks and whatnot. I assured her I would search the net and find out so here I am. I beleive some inputs on this sight referring to Russian seven or Russian 10/12 are the same game she was asking about. If anyone could email me , , with the complete rules I would most appreciate it. Thanks all, Maria

I started on the Grand Concourse…

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I started on the Grand Concourse in the early 60’s and never stopped having fun after that. Stickball, Skellies, Johnny on the Pony, Kick the can, watching the greasers and the new hippies stare each other down. My twin brother and I were nice Puerto Rican boys in an Irish / Jewish neighborhood. All my friends were Shemtobs, McNallens, ORielly, Buffa, Mehan, Schwartz. It was great, I learned a whole bunch of different cuss words. We had fake wars with sling shots and bottle caps. We would explore boiler rooms and roof tops and would make flashlights out of Bean cans with a lit candle burning the tin till it was too hot to hold. We could watch the parades on the Grand Concourse from any stoop on the street, All the US flags would wave from the windows. We had about 30 kids playing stickball on Marcy place and many of us would roof spaldings atop PS 88 on Sheridan. It was the perfect Stickball Street. We could also open Johnny pumps with a stickball bat and a coat hanger and spend hours grinding bean cans on the concrete to get the tops off.(boy were we dumb) We also built scooters with old metal skates and old milk boxes. Build tunnels in the mountains of snow that was built up by sanitation. We would sing Beatles tunes to our 3rd grade girlfriends and run like heck when they tried to kiss us. We all formed the Bronx Super Heroes club. I was 007 – James Bond and my brother Karl was Robin “The boy blunder” Between all the Bronx buildings were miles and miles of alleys and basements were we all would explore. We also would walk on Jerome Ave. to go Ice-skating or go to the Concourse hotel to see Mickey Mantle as well as the Original NY Giants in the winter. Then one summer every one moved to co-op City and from that time on it was never the same. That was until I discovered Handball and life in the Bronx was good again 🙂 I live in Dallas now and doing well. My kids are popular here because they are from the Bronx. It’s cool here. People don’t know whether to love us or hate us. In any event, when we have to be heard, no one stands in our way. Thank you my Bronx. I could not imagine my life without you in it. You are now in me and I will share you with all. We miss you all! Schools: PS, 44, 88, 90, 67, Catholic: Christ the King, Sacred Heart HS (Don